EACH training takes wings at Carson

Evans Army Community Hospital leadership listen to an aircrew mission pre-brief at Butts Army Airfield from Black Hawk pilots assigned to the 2nd General Aviation Support Battalion, 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th InfantryDivision, Dec. 1, 2014. (Photo by Jeff Troth)

By Jeff Troth

Medical Department Activity Public Affairs Office

Evans Army Community Hospital staff met with pilots of the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Dec. 1, 2014, to observe a different perspective on team coordination.

The hospital staff members received a class on aircrew coordination, a Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) refresher class and then went to Butts Army Airfield to witness the coordination needed for a helicopter crew to fly safely.

“The reason for partnering with the aircrew is to show our hospital staff how everyone on an aircrew is an integral part of the team and everyone’s voice is equal, since they all have a vested interest in the outcome of the mission,” said Capt. Brent Hayward, EACH Baylor resident. “Being a pilot and a medical services officer myself, I noticed similarities between aircrew coordination and the coordination that is needed amongst our health care teams.”

Hayward saw the training conducted by the aircrews from 2nd General Aviation Support Battalion, 4th CAB, as a way to help reinforce a health care teamwork system. TeamSTEPPS is a method designed to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of health care. All Evans’ employees receive TeamSTEPPS training when they begin working at the hospital.

“TeamSTEPPS is a great tool, but we don’t take it out of the toolbox enough,” he said.

TeamSTEPPS training is a hospital requirement during in-processing and every three years. Aircrews receive crew coordination training semiannually and use those communication skills every time they fly.

In order to see how the pilots and enlisted crewmembers communicate during a mission, a flight in a Black Hawk helicopter was scheduled but grounded due to weather. Hayward said the training was still a success.

“We were still able to take our staff out of their normal environment and let them see a team communication process that is similar to what happens in our clinics,” he said. “But, in our clinics we need to change the perceived hierarchy among docs and nurses and (physician assistants) and medics.”

He said sometimes a nurse or medic may not feel empowered to correct a doctor, but TeamSTEPPS is designed to help employees engage people who are senior to them in rank or position.

“TeamSTEPPS is a comprehensive teamwork training system designed to improve quality and safety in health care,” said

, chief of Evans Quality Service Division and a TeamSTEPPS master trainer. “The system is rooted in more than three decades of research in high-stress, high-risk industries, such as military aviation. Aviation and health care are both industries that are high-risk environments where the consequences of error may lead to serious consequences or death.”

TeamSTEPPS is based on a framework of four skills: communication, leadership, situation monitoring and mutual support. The system provides specific tools and strategies to support these core skills.

“Communication and information sharing (are some) of the most important aspects of successful medical teams and quality clinical care,” Ferguson said. “No single clinical specialty or discipline can meet all of a patient’s needs, so we have to talk to one another to coordinate care plans.”

Data compiled by the Joint Commission, a primary hospital accreditation agency, show that between 1995 and 2005 ineffective communication was identified as the root cause of 66 percent of reported errors in medical facilities nationwide. Data from 2010-2013 show that ineffective communication remains one of the top three root causes of errors in civilian and military hospitals.

“TeamSTEPPS is a great tool for reducing errors because it gets everyone talking to each other,” said Hayward. “The purpose of this training is to remind people that everyone on a health care team
is responsible for providing quality care to our patients and to remove barriers that hinder that.”